Rattlin the Reefer | Page 4

me back to my mother.

The most impassioned entreaties, and an additional five pounds, at
length prevailed on Mrs Brandon to nestle me again in her bosom, and
try to excite the sympathy of her husband. She returned to him, but the
fellow had now taken to himself two counsellors, a drunken mate who
served under him in the pit, and his own avarice. I am stating mere
facts: I may not be believed--I cannot help it--but three times was I
carried backwards and forwards, every transit producing to the sawyer
five extra pounds, when, at length, my little head found a resting-place.
All these events I have had over and over again from my nurse, and
they are most faithfully recorded.
Before noon on that memorable morning the chaise-and-four were
again at the door, and the veiled and shawl-enveloped lady was lifted in,
and the vehicle dashed rapidly through the streets of Reading, in a
northerly direction. I pretend not to relate facts of which I have never
had an assured knowledge; I cannot state to where that chaise and its
desolate occupant proceeded, nor can I give a moving description of
feelings that I did not witness. When I afterwards knew that that lady
was my mother, I never dared question her upon these points, but, from
the strength, the intensity of every good and affectionate feeling that
marked her character, I can only conceive, that, if that journey was
made in the stupor of weakness and exhaustion, or even in the
wanderings of delirium, it must have been, to her, a dispensation of
infinite mercy.
She deserted her new-born infant--she flung forth her child from the
warmth of her own bosom to the cold, hireling kindness of the stranger.
I think I hear some puritanical, world-observing, starched piece of
female rigidity exclaim, "And therein she did a great wickedness." The
fact I admit, but the wickedness I deny utterly.
That there were misery and much suffering inflicted, I do not deny; but
of all guilt, even of all blame, I eagerly acquit one, whose principles of
action were as pure, and the whole tenor of whose life was as upright,
as even Virtue herself could have dictated. Let the guilt and the misery
attendant upon this desertion of myself be attached to the real sinners!
I have before said that Brandon was a top sawyer. We must now call

him Mr Brandon--he has purchased a pair of top boots, a swell top coat,
and though now frequently top heavy, thinks himself altogether a
topping gentleman. He is now to be seen more frequently in the
skittle-ground, clasping a half-gallon, instead of a quart of beer. He
decides authoritatively upon foul and fair play, and his voice is
potential on almost all matters in debate at the Two Jolly Sawyers, near
Lambeth Walk, just at the top of Cut-throat Lane.
All this is now altered. We look in vain for the Two Jolly Sawyers. We
may ask, where are they? and not Echo, but the Archbishop of
Canterbury, must answer where--for he has most sacerdotally put down
all the jollity there, by pulling down the house, and has built up a large
wharf, where once stood a very pretty tree-besprinkled walk, leading to
the said Jolly Sawyers. Cut-throat Lane is no more; yet, though it bore
a villainous name, it was very pretty to walk through; and its many
turnstiles were as so many godsends to the little boys, as they enjoyed
on them, gratis, some blithe rides, that they would have had to pay for
at any fair in the kingdom. We can very well understand why the
turnstiles were so offensive to the dignitary; in fact, all this building,
and leasing of houses, and improvement of property, and destroying of
poor people's pleasant walks, is nothing more than an improved reading
of the words, "benefit of clergy."
CHAPTER THREE.
MY FOSTER-FATHER FORSAKES THE RIGHT LINE OF
CONDUCT CHALKED OUT FOR HIM--I GROW ILL--FIND
POT-LUCK AND BAPTISM--GO TO BATH, AND TAKE MY
FIRST LESSONS IN THE ARTS OF PERSUASION.
When I was placed with the Brandons, it was stipulated that they
should remove immediately from Reading; and, whilst I was in their
family, they should return there no more. For this purpose the
necessary expenses were forwarded to them by an unknown hand. To
Lambeth they therefore removed, because it abounded in saw-pits; but
this advantage was more than destroyed by its abundance of
skittle-grounds. Mr Joseph Brandon had satisfied his conscience by

coming into the neighbourhood of the said saw-pits: it showed a
direction towards the paths of industry; but whilst he had, through his
wife, for nursing me, 81 pounds, 18 shillings per annum, he always
preferred knocking down, or seeing knocked down, the nine pins, to the